by Marc Mickelson, March 12, 2014 © www.theaudiobeat.com

VTL
Siegfried Series II
Reference Mono
Amplifiers
by Marc Mickelson, March 12, 2014
© www.theaudiobeat.com
E
very maker of audio equipment has a philosophy for creating a product line that takes into account the introduction of new
models as well as the upgrade of existing ones. Some
companies follow a well-established script that’s based
mostly on time. Every x number of years -- often three,
sometimes five -- the company will introduce a new
model to replace an existing one. The rationale here
is easy to understand, even without a business degree:
new products mean new sales, and sales are why
manufacturers are in business.
be released. Instead of adhering to a schedule,
this manufacturer will be more engaged in, well,
manufacturing. Existing products will have to continue to entice customers, and the introduction of new
products will be true events, driven by discovery instead of purely economic considerations.
VTL does things this second way. Its product line,
comprising amplifiers, preamplifiers and phono stages
at various price levels, is vast, ensuring that all market
segments are covered and expanding the company’s
reach to customers. This is all part of the strategy, and it has some built-in advantages for VTL customers. A purchase today doesn’t start the clock ticking, with
a replacement expected at some regular interval in the
But this isn’t the only way for a manufacturer to crack
this particular nut. Some simply let the pace of their own R&D determine when a new product will
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near future. Value is ensured, and customers are
more loyal to the brand, because the brand is
loyal to them.
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upon it sufficiently to warrant a replacement.
Whereas the input of the original Siegfried was
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balanced, the Series II goes a giant step further,
incorporating a fully balanced differential circuit
Probably the most extreme example of this goes all
from input to output, “for improved isolation from
the way back to 1998, when VTL head Luke Manley and
noise interference, internal or external,” in Luke Manley’s
his team of engineers set about creating the company’s
words. VTL could have stopped with just this alone; a fully
Reference line of products, which led directly to the balanced circuit is no plug’n’play affair. But also new is a
TL-7.5 preamp and the Siegfried monoblocks. The TL-7.5’s
shorter, faster fully balanced feedback loop to improve a
circuit was updated to Series II status in 2006 and then to
condition with the original amp that caused slight ringing
Series III, , in 2010. In contrast, the Siegfried went without
when driven hard. An output transformer that’s “more
significant change from its debut around 2000 all the way
heavily interleaved and sectioned” and Teflon bypass caps
to late 2011, when the Series II appeared.
in all power supplies are also new, along with 12BH7
driver tubes, which
As with the TL-7.5,
replace the 6350s in
the latest Siegfried
the original amp. The
has undergone not so
Siegfried II also has
much an upgrade as
no global feedback.
a rethinking. While
the amp looks and
A new feature was
functions as it always
also introduced with
has, uses the same
Series II: adjustable
output tubes and
damping factor. This
produces the same
varies the amps’
amount of power, the
negative feedback
circuit has changed
and thereby the
in ways that are
input sensitivity and
fundamental to the
output impedance.
amp’s current sonic
In theory, it increases
character.
the amps’ ability to
control the woofers of
The original Siegfried
the speakers they’re
was anything but
driving. In practice,
unrefined, featuring
it is absolutely vital
a dozen parallel
to getting the most
output tubes
from the Siegfried IIs
(KT88s or 6550Cs),
-- and your speakers.
a massive power
Four levels -- Low,
supply that occupied much of the chassis, low negative
Medium, High, and Max -- are available, and from my
feedback, point-to-point wiring, a fully balanced
experience, using the amps to drive two pairs of Wilson
input (and switchable single-ended input), an onboard
Audio speakers and one from Venture Audio, one setting
microprocessor to manage startup (among other
will be considerably better than the others, halving
functions), automatic tube biasing and a robust system
the difference between bass control and the purity of
for sensing and managing faults, most often a matter of a
essentially every other part of the sonic spectrum.
tube going bad.
With both Wilson speakers, Medium worked best, and
In other words, the Siegfried was a platform meant to
with the Ventures it was the Low setting. I asked Luke
exist unchanged for a decade or more, until such time
Manley about the settings for other brands of speakers.
that Luke Manley and his design team could improve
“We have found that generally Medium works well with
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speakers like the Rockports and Vivids, and
a very useful feature, given that the fuses for
I could see some people who like solid-state
the Siegfried II are industrial ones with solid
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amps using the High setting, but I don’t know if
bodies, so you can’t see when they are blown.
anyone would use the Max setting, honestly, as it
You can also connect a computer and get a
starts to cut into the smooth roll-off in the frequencyreadout of all faults the amplifier has encountered
response curve.” Luke also mentioned that some listeners
over its lifetime. This is especially useful if for some
use different settings for different types of music, which
reason VTL needs to diagnose a problem.
adds a level of involvement that I personally would want
to avoid but some people may appreciate.
While the Siegfried II’s circuitry relies on the nearly
ancient (in technology terms) vacuum tube, it is a
Looking at the Siegfried Series II reveals not an audio
thoroughly contemporary piece of electronics, fitting
amplifier in the well-established mold but essentially a
right in in this high-tech age. I don’t know of an amplifier
personal power plant -- 650 watts in tetrode and 330
that monitors its own operation with even half the same
watts in triode -- for each speaker. The output tubes
rigor. Yet, for the most part, you won’t have to interact
and their requisite circuit board occupy the top third of
with all of its doodadery unless you choose to. Instead,
the sizeable chassis, which is two feet high by two feet
you’ll set it and forget it.
deep, with the amp’s power supply occupying nearly the
entire two-thirds remaining. The back panel is busy with
n addition to making use of the advanced connectors, switches, fuse holders and a large heatsink,
features and all of that power, owners of the which signals one of the amp’s true innovations:
Siegfried IIs will be able to wile away countless
precision-regulated plate, screen and bias supplies that
hours listening to the two different sets of output tubes
keep the operating point of the output tubes constant
the amps can accommodate, and the further variation even as the AC power fluctuates, in Luke Manley’s words,
of the amps’ tetrode/triode switching will only add to “for greater tonal stability and sonic integrity, especially
the intrigue. While some may see all of these choices
under complex, dynamic signal conditions.” Unlike other
-- four in total for just the base configuration of the amp
tube amps, even extremely powerful ones, the Siegfried II
-- as being more subtractive to the experience of listening
doesn’t have output taps for different loads.
to music than additive to owning the amps, I see them
as an opportunity. In all likelihood, Siegfried II owners
A tube failure during listening illustrated just how
will use the amps with either 6550Cs or KT88s for the
intelligent and well protected the Siegfried IIs are. The LED
vast bulk of their listening and quickly settle on tetrode
display on the face of the amp immediately let me know
or triode as well. However, with the push of a button,
that a tube had failed, the green LED next to the tube
the owner can take a sonic vacation and see how the
within the amp’s chassis pointing it out. After swapping the
other half lives. And just as some vacations happen close
tube, I reset the amp’s fault mechanism, which is behind
to home and others around the world, that same owner
a removable cover, and the amp was back to business.
can swap output tubes and experience another culture,
However, as Luke Manley demonstrated when he helped
sonically speaking, before heading back to his cozy,
install the amps in my system (each weighs 200 pounds
familiar existence.
and ships in a crate with built-in shock absorbers, so help
is necessary), the Siegfried II would continue to operate
But enough with the analogizing. Here are some
even with a dead tube. The amp shuts down the partnering
specifics. For almost all of the time I had the Siegfried IIs
tube and then merrily rolls along, the front panel, not a
in my system, I listened with 6550C tubes and in tetrode,
pause in the music, telling you that something deserving
where the Siegfried IIs are able to deliver their full 650
your attention has occurred.
watts each -- power that was never completely needed
but whose potential certainly had its sonic effects. There are other features hiding behind that removable
(Raw power has its own signature quite aside from
cover, the ability to keep track of the number of tube
anything else an amp achieves.) Unless otherwise
hours along with measuring the amp’s operating
indicated, the comments I make regarding the sound temperature and the voltage of your AC line among
of the Siegfried IIs were derived with the amps outfitted
them. Each amp also comes with a built-in fuse tester,
and used this way.
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But during his initial visit, Luke Manley brought that works with our choice of speaker or simply
along a set of KT88s, and I listened to them
grope in the sonic dark, hoping that the two will
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as well as experimented with triode at various
couple properly. It is true that any amp, even the
points. In general, the KT88s were short of the
wrong one, will make sound with essentially any
speed and incisiveness of the 6550Cs, although
speaker, but our goals as audiophiles are so much
for some listeners these will be a reasonable tradeoff.
more ambitious than merely making sound, and they put
With KT88s, the Siegfried IIs were sweeter and warmer,
pressure on our choice of amplifier. If only there were such
more midrangey, though less resolute,
as thing as a universal amplifier, one whose
including in the bass, which was
electrical properties, not to mention its
softer. Switching the amps to triode,
sonic character, were such that it could
irrespective of the tubes, effects some
drive all speakers and sound magnificent
of the same changes, trading leadingdoing so. Imagine a universal combustion
edge definition for a fuller, rounder
engine, one you could drop into a sports
midrange. In most ways, the choice
car for racing or into a truck for pulling
of output tubes and operating mode
a yacht over a mountain. It would
was rather like that for the damping
have to be built for both utmost speed
factor: I definitely preferred one
and torque, seemingly connected
combination, even though it was not
qualities but in so many ways mutually
unquestionably better in every way
exclusive.
-- a microcosm of high-end audio
in general.
We often consider solid-state amps
as being the most widely applicable,
Regarding preamps, a distinguished
able to drive the most speakers in the
collection of which I had on hand,
most satisfying way. They possess the
it will probably come as no surprise
torque but not the speed, so to speak,
that the best of those I used with the
while so many tube amps come at the
Siegfried IIs, no matter the amps’
issue from the other direction, having
output tubes or operating mode,
the speed but not the torque.
was from VTL, the TL-7.5 Series
III. Putting aside the more obvious
The Siegfried II is an altogether
qualities like tonal consistency, with
uncommon amplifier. Its multifaceted
the TL-7.5 III, the amps just seemed
regulation and parallel output devices
to be more themselves: enormously
ensure constant delivery of a massive
authoritative or acutely focused,
amount of power under any conditions
depending on the recording, each
and the low output impedance required
of which sounded better resolved
to cope with the vagaries of the load
and more distinct. Bass had greater
that a wide array of speakers present -texture and weight, and transients
from steep phase angles to drops below
were a touch more swift and defined.
2 ohms. But perhaps more pertinent, the
That the two products grew out of the same design work
Siegfried IIs deliver music with detail, suppleness, authority
seems evident when you hear them together.
and finesse -- from top to bottom, no matter the speakers
with which they are used.
f all the interfaces in an audio system, those points where one component connects to In fact, listening to them required a bit of assimilation,
another and the musical circle remains
especially as I threw recordings of varied music in different
unbroken, none is more critical to the sonic outcome
formats at them. When the amps first arrived, I had just
than that between the speaker and amplifier. It is where
finished my review of the Wilson Alexandria XLFs, and
electrical energy becomes acoustic energy -- where the
the speakers were still in my system. The XLFs may be
signal becomes music. We therefore must choose an amp
large and heavy, but they have the heart of an easy-toe
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drive minimonitor. Their load and sensitivity
certainly convinced any doubters. For all of their
presented no problems for any amp I used,
might, the Siegfried IIs treated this truly intimate
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including a budget-priced TEAC integrated amp
set with a gentle touch, conveying all of its
that I put into service for a couple of days, just for
spooky imaging and ambience, Burnside and his
my own edification. With the XLFs, the Siegfried IIs
guitar positively locked dead center. It is impossible, I
were capable of near-PA volume levels and bass power
think, for any amplifier to make this recording sound bad,
that seemed to emanate from the core of the earth, yet
but they don’t all bring it to its fullest expression -- and this
when I played far less demanding recordings, the amps
music is all about expression. The Siegfried IIs maximized
-- and speakers -- shape-shifted, presenting mono jazz or
the poignancy of Burnside’s singing and playing by
folk with ghostly focus and see-within transparency, all of
revealing every detail the recording had to offer, but doing
those tubes and drivers sounding positively demure in the
so with natural pacing and placement. “None better,” said
process. I already knew about
my listening notes; if I wasn’t aiming for
this ability of the speakers,
understatement, I had certainly
but I didn’t understand its full
achieved it.
extent until the Siegfried IIs
were doing the driving.
Tonality was squarely in the
tradition of tubes with the
I’m not talking merely about
Siegfried IIs: rife with color
scale here -- the ability to
and density, the things that
sound big with orchestral
help recorded voices and
music or intimate with solo
instruments sound more
guitar, for instance -- although
human, more real. This is
that is surely part of it. It is
something tubes generally
instead a complex of qualities
do well, but the Siegfried
so diverse and wide-ranging
IIs go beyond well and into
as to prove that the Siegfried
transcendent territory. Voices
IIs were unlike any amp in
were always full and vivid,
my experience. So, with the
instruments rich in timbre, their
Telarc SACD of Copland and
tonality remaining individual
Hindemith music [Telarc SACDand true no matter the
60648] or Keith Richards’ Main
demands of the recording. The
Offender CD [Virgin V2-86499],
amps are so convincing when
I needed to buckle up for a ride
it comes to reconstructing
on massive waves of power, the tam-tam
the scale of each recording,
strikes from “Fanfare for the Common Man”
both big and small, that the
slicing through the air with the same laserdense images were never sonic
like precision as the drum strikes of “Wicked As It
dead ends, existing only for their own
Seems” from Main Offender. As I leaned on the volume,
sake. The massive power available never overwhelmed,
everything just got louder and more rowdy, especially
remaining in reserve until the music pushed past those first
Richards’ blazing guitar work, the sense of liveness, of
glorious watts and more were needed.
sitting in the concert hall or standing near the PA stack,
becoming more apparent.
Again, while it seemed a pity with such powerful amps,
I played (overplayed) mono recordings with the Siegfried
But the silly fun came in the juxtaposition of those discs
IIs, from early ‘50s original LPs to reissues of music from
with R.L. Burnside’s First Recordings [Mobile Fidelity
the same era. Finding great music on LP for almost nothing
UDSACD 2026]. I’m sure there was some head-scratching
allows no-risk experimentation. In this spirit, I will grab
when Mobile Fidelity announced that this set of mono
any mono Columbia jazz LP, no matter the performer. This
demo recordings from the late 1960s was up for reissue
is how I discovered Calvin Jackson, a classically trained
on SACD, but its otherworldly immediacy and presence
pianist who recorded two LPs on Columbia in the mide
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1950s: The Calvin Jackson Quartet [Columbia
Opus MM2:
CL 756] and Rave Notice [Columbia CL 824].
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an inconvenient truth
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If you want to hear them, you have one choice
only: the original LPs. Neither has come to CD or
Luke Manley wanted me to hear his top-of-thebeen reissued on LP, and it seems unlikely that this
line electronics with an equally top-of-the-line set
will change, given Jackson’s obscurity: he made his final
of interconnects and speaker cables, reasoning that
recordings in 1961, but he lived for more than two decades
I would only hear what the system assembled in my
after that. I absolutely love listening to such lost music -listening room was capable of with cables that were
lost to digital, that is. With the Siegfried IIs, Jackson’s piano
equally all-encompassing and no-compromise. I was
rang with life during his 15-minute explication of “Love
willing to oblige, even if I was less than enthusiastic.
Me or Leave Me,” the Siegfried IIs revealing the recording’s
When you move as much equipment into and out
slight dryness and the closed-in quality of the venue. I find
of your system as I do, you become impatient at the
that piano in particular is well served on these older mono
prospect of even more gear swapping, each new
recordings, perhaps because early stereo miking led to the
variable making the work of reviewing the product at
instrument sounding misshaped, the channels rarely able to
hand increasingly agonizing and difficult.
mix properly. If Calvin Jackson piques your interest, other
lost Columbia jazz pianists whose work you should seek
Luke was especially partial to Nordost Odin and
out are Enrique Villegas and John Eaton. As with Calvin
Transparent Opus MM2, and, to make things easy,
Jackson, you won’t hear them unless you find the LPs.
he was willing to send VTL’s own set of either cables.
With Nordost’s Valhalla 2 coming (a full set of which
Before the Alexandria XLFs were packed up, Wilson Audio
I now have; review forthcoming), I didn’t want to
shipped me a Thor’s Hammer subwoofer. Knowing this,
muddy the waters with Odin, so I chose Transparent.
Luke Manley sent a third Siegfried II with which to drive
At one point, my system included a Wilson Audio
it, throwing down the gauntlet vis-à-vis the kind of amp
Thor’s Hammer subwoofer and its associated
-- tube or solid state -- that was appropriate for use with
electronics, including a third VTL Siegfried II amp, so
a subwoofer, not to mention a subwoofer like the Thor’s
I needed an extra balanced interconnect and a single
Hammer. As they have done in the past, John Giolas
run of speaker cable, along with an extra pair of
and Trent Workman of Wilson Audio visited to uncrate
balanced interconnects for digital. Transparent kindly
everything and set it all up, including the third Siegfried II,
augmented where necessary.
which led to a cracked ceramic tile in the entryway of my
house, confirming the amp’s weight, I suppose.
Transparent Audio cables are a universe removed
from the “one cable fits all” model. Opus MM2
Once again, juxtaposed with the mono jazz I was listening
interconnects ($11,580 per one-meter single-ended
to in copious amounts, the system as it was assembled,
pair, $20,000 per one-meter balanced pair) and
with a refrigerator-sized subwoofer in the corner, was truly
speaker cables ($34,735 per eight-foot pair) are
dazzling in its ability to unearth previously unrealized low
tailored to the electronics with which they will be
frequencies, and the third Siegfried II made the case that
used. This happens within each cable’s network.
it -- and tubes in general -- absolutely can do low bass. I
Essentially a filter circuit comprised of specially
already knew this from the amps’ depth and control with
chosen parts, the network optimizes the electrical
the XLFs, although the Siegfried II/Thor’s Hammer upgrade
characteristics inherent in the construction and
went to far beyond the XLFs alone, revealing the hidden
length of the cable as well as the point in the
throbs on “Diver Boy” from Natalie Merchant’s The House
system where it will be used. It also combats noise
Carpenter’s Daughter CD [Myth America MA 1026] and
and provides a measure of physical damping. This
other recordings.
is a cursory rundown of Transparent’s technology,
which, at least in my mind, makes sense if you
While I’ve heard some well-defined deep bass from
accept the notion that the electrical demands of the
solid-state amps, including the Luxman B-1000f and
signal between one amp and preamp, for instance,
Analog Domain Artemis monoblocks, I couldn’t say that
are not the same as those between the same amp
it was better in overall quality than what the Siegfried IIs
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and another preamp. I also personally
find comfort in the fact that Transparent’s
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technology is not based on vacuous,
hopeful theory. From the company’s website:
“Every design is carefully calibrated according to
Transparent’s listening criteria as observed with longterm listening. . . .”
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delivered. Their control, their grip on the woofers,
was awesome in the truest sense of the word: able
to invoke a sense of awe when the music had it
to give -- with or without the Thor’s Hammer. The
Siegfried IIs will go toe to toe with any solid-state amp
I’ve heard, even the best of them, offering a little more
bounce in the upper bass, for instance, in exchange for a
little less slam with the most massive bass transients.
The arrival of a full set of Opus MM2 in its shipping
cartons is quite a production. Because of the large
and heavy network running along each cable’s
length, the packing has to be much larger than
expected in order to allow ample room for foam
inserts that keep everything in place, so the networks
aren’t moving around during transit. For speaker
cables, this means a shipping box that’s big enough
for an enormous amplifier. Unpacking the cables
is easy enough, but packing them up is another
matter, especially the speaker cables, which are as
uncooperative as a moody python. You also have to
account for the networks when you put the cables
into the system, being sure you have enough space
and support for them. The networks for the speaker
cables are like components themselves, down to their
spiked footers.
It will probably come as no surprise that the VTL amps
were also dynamically imperturbable, not so much
because of their power reserves but rather their intrinsic
dynamic range, especially for a tube amp, a quality
enhanced by the Transparent cables (see sidebar). A good
number of solid-state amps are quieter at the noise floor,
but that’s the case compared with any tube design. The
Siegfried IIs fly below any noise, revealing the fine details
that create the fabric of much acoustic music -- the touch
of a pianist like George Winston or a guitarist like Michael
Hedges -- as readily as the bombast of amplified rock
or large-ensemble jazz. If there was a recording or kind
of music that these amps didn’t reveal with seemingly
boundless detail and naturalness, I didn’t hear it -- and
believe me I tried to find it.
In fact, after a certain point in my listening, discovering
some way in which the Siegfried IIs fell short became more
of the goal than hearing once again that they couldn’t
be tripped up. Large-scale music? Check. Intimate mono
recordings? Check. The naturalness and tonal glory of
tubes? Check. Bass control and power? Check. Dynamic
variation? Check. Intimacy? Check. The ability to drive
disparate loads? Check. User friendliness and just plain fun?
Check and check. The Siegfried IIs proved to be as close to
a universal audio engine that I’ve heard and, I’m confident
to speculate, exists in high-end audio here and now.
All of these inconveniences become a distant
afterthought once the Opus MM2 cables are in place
and music is playing. The enduring impression I have
of them is of presence and composure. Instruments
and singers sounded substantial and deeply hued,
and backgrounds were intensely, eerily black. If
three-dimensional images are one of your audio
touchstones, Opus MM2 conjures them like no other
cables I’ve heard. Along with this were dynamic
variegation and transient speed, neither of which was
excessive or showy, just there. The bass power and
control that the Opus MM2 cables brought to the
presentation were simply state of the art, especially
from 200Hz on down. In many ways, they, not the
electronics or speakers, defined the low-frequency
capabilities of the system.
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istening with the Siegfried IIs was a constant revelation, not because, as some reviewers like to say, I heard new things from familiar
recordings, but rather because the amps served every
recording so well, no matter the music or the sonic
qualities. The Siegfried IIs presented music in a complete
and elemental way, preserving, even enhancing, its
message. Roy Gregory likes to talk about the ways in which
audio equipment can make music sound like it’s played by
better musicians. The recording is the recording, I’ve always
reasoned, and there’s nothing that reproduction can do to
improve upon it. But the Siegfried IIs helped me understand
Here’s the obligatory admission of high cost: in case
you hadn’t noticed, these are expensive cables, really
expensive. But then the system in which they were
used was really expensive too. Transparent also offers
interconnects and speaker cables that cost much less
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About four years ago, shortly after The Audio Beat first
appeared, I mentioned in one of my reviews an amplifier
top-five list -- a personal tally of the best amps I had heard
regardless of price or technology. It caught on and readers
asked me for the full list, which I was happy to supply. It
has changed some over the years, although it still has an
amp on it that I reviewed prior to launching the site: the
single-ended Lamm ML3 Signature. Also represented are
solid state in form of the Ayre MX-R, push-pull tubes by the
Audio Research Reference 250, and output transformerless
with the Atma-Sphere MA-2 Mk 3.1.
than Opus MM2, and they’re built with the
same premises and objectives in mind, and
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some of the same conductors, connectors and
passive parts. I expect they will sound much as I describe above.
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Roy’s point. With them, musical interplay was
tighter and more cohesive, just plain better, no
matter the recording.
No product segment within audiophilia is more
misunderstood and maligned than cables, and that’s
doubly true for expensive cables. However, these
expensive cables delivered on the implied promise of
their considerable cost, readjusting my understanding
of what’s possible, not just from interconnects and
speaker cables but from reproduction itself. I was
reluctant to try the Opus MM2 cables in the first place,
but I missed them the moment they were gone.
-Marc Mickelson
And now at the top of that list sits the VTL Siegfried II.
Price: $65,000 per pair.
Warranty: Five years parts and labor.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Alexandria XLF and
Alexia, Venture Audio Ultimate Reference.
VTL
4774 Murrieta Street
Unit 10
Chino, CA 91710
Phone (909) 627-5944
Subwoofer: Wilson Audio Thor’s Hammer.
Associated Equipment
Speaker cables: AudioQuest William E. Low Signature,
Nordost Valhalla 2, Shunyata Research Zi-Tron
Anaconda, Transparent Audio Opus MM2.
Interconnects: AudioQuest William E. Low Signature,
Nordost Valhalla 2, Shunyata Research Zi-Tron
Anaconda, Transparent Audio Opus MM2.
Analog: TW-Acustic Raven AC turntable; Graham B-44
Phantom Series II Supreme and Tri-Planar Mk VII UII
tonearms; Denon DL-103R, Dynavector XV-1t and XV-1s
Mono cartridges; Audio Research Reference Phono 2 SE
and Lamm Industries LP1 Signature phono stages.
Power conditioners: Essential Sound Products The
Essence Reference-II, Quantum QB4 and QB8, Quantum
Qx4, Shunyata Research Hydra Triton and Typhon.
Digital: Ayre Acoustics DX-5 “A/V Engine,” Esoteric
K-01 CD/SACD player, CEC TL 1 CD transport, Toshiba
Satellite laptop.
Power cords: Essential Sound Products The Essence
Reference-II and MusicCord-Pro ES, Nordost Valhalla
2 and Frey 2, Shunyata Research Zi-Tron Anaconda.
Preamplifiers: Audio Research Reference Anniversary
and Reference 10, Convergent Audio Technology SL1
Legend, Lamm Industries LL1 Signature, VTL TL-7.5
Series III Reference.
Equipment rack and platforms: Silent Running Audio
Craz² 8 equipment rack and Ohio Class XL Plus²
platforms (under Lamm M1.2 amps), Harmonic
Resolution Systems M3 isolation bases.
Power amplifiers: Analog Domain Artemis, Atma-Sphere MA-2 Mk 3.1, and Lamm Industries M1.2
Reference monoblocks.
Accessories: Gryphon Audio Designs Exorcist system
demagnetizer.
8